


After the Fall

by wynnebat



Category: Kingsman (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Crossover, F/F, Grief/Mourning, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Kingsman: The Secret Service, Reconciliation, Second Chances, Soulmates, not AOU compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:38:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6088542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're a real liability," Maria said, the first time she sent an encrypted email to Fury and it was delivered to a princess in Sweden instead. Years later, Tilde knew she hadn't mistyped Eggsy's number into her phone, and almost hung up when she heard Maria's voice.</p><p>(In which technology tries its best to nudge soulmates together, but it can only do so much.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Femslash Ficlets](http://femslashficlets.dreamwidth.org/) challenge #47 - fight.

Four days after being released from her prison, the newly crowned Queen of Sweden had a headache approximately the size of her country's death toll. Half the country's top politicians were dead. Not due to their heads having blown up—Sweden top tier hadn't been courted as strenuously by Valentine as other countries—but due to the fact that a number of them had been attending a gala at the time of Valentine's plan. The room, when finally unsealed, had been a horror.

She was queen of a nation of mourners, her family was dead, and the world had gone to hell. Despite Kingsman's successful defeat of Valentine, too many people had died in the scant minutes the signal had been active. By day, Tilde worked tirelessly to try to set corral her country into some semblance of what it was only a week ago. But at night, her thoughts drifted to the personal thoughts she couldn't afford to have during the day. She'd lost her entire family.

Grieving was difficult, nearly impossible, when one had to put on a confident face every morning.

With a sigh, Tilde gave in and called the number her rescuer had given her before dropping her off at her blood-soaked palace. The phone network and electricity had only been on for a day.

"Hill speaking," came a voice that sounded nearly as tired as Tilde's.

Tilde considered hanging up. She had a thousand problems. There was no need to add her soulmate to the list. It had been over a year now since they'd last spoken, and it had been a very wonderfully quiet year, as far as blowout fights with her soulmate went.

And really, it wasn't Tilde's fault that the inane magics that tied them together tried their best to connect them through technology, and that too often it was by way crossing their emails. But, perhaps, Tilde had a small amount of blame in sending Maria's emails to be decoded and analyzed for the betterment of her country's standing.

"You're a real liability," had been Maria's first words to Tilde.

Tilde had called her a bitch. Maria yelled about matters of national security. Tilde shouted about not giving a damn about the United States. It had only devolved from there, with threats to get the email unencrypted and published in the media from one side and all but a reading of Miranda rights from the other. After the interference of families and bosses and secret governmental agencies, they'd managed a shaky detente.

It wasn't like they could have a proper romance, anyway. Tilde had her family and fame, Maria had her career. Neither liked each other's professions all that much, and a blend of their lives was impossible when there was an ocean between them. And when Maria's life was so confidential that there was barely a trace of her left outside of SHIELD and Tilde was frequently on newspaper and magazine covers, there was little room for overlap.

"Wrong number," Tilde said, after a very long moment, and moved to end the call. She had faint fantasy of saying hello, holding an actual conversation, maybe even finding common ground with a woman who was cleaning up the same mess on the other side of the world, but it had been too long.

But after a year of silence and a word gone mad, Maria's first words were, "I'm so glad you're alright." They were rushed, awkward, and the best thing Tilde had heard in days.

"You, too," Tilde replied. Maria hadn't been her first thought, nor her second, but her soulmate had a spot on the list of people Tilde would've cried over, if only she could find the time. The words felt strange on her tongue after years of never saying a nice thing about the other half of her soul, so she added, "Really. I looked for you. You weren't on the lists of American deaths, but you wouldn't have been, anyway."

"I looked for you, too."

"Did you? In between all your very important tasks?"

"Every day. I just— Tilde—" Maria stopped and sighed, and didn't continue.

Tilde knew what Maria wanted to say, and it wasn't a soulmate thing. There wasn't much room for pride in a world as chaotic as theirs, but they were still clinging to it.

"We're a pair, aren't we?" Tilde said with a bit of a huff. "You'd think we'd have gotten more mature over the years."

"I've matured quite a lot, thank you. Especially now that I've been around Stark for extended periods of time. He—" A sigh. "He doesn't matter. Look, about what we decided, ages ago... Are you open to renegotiation?"

The words weren't romantic at all, but Tilde was too tired to want romance. She wanted someone to call in the evenings, to complain to when things didn't work out, to bring to fancy parties whenever they started being organized again. She wanted to say _I was never supposed to be queen_ to someone who wouldn't judge her for the grief and tiredness she couldn't always hide.

"Are you open to showing your face occasionally?"

"Maybe even more than my face," Maria offered.

That was a first; Tilde had never even seen her outside of a SHIELD uniform. The urge to find out was a little overwhelming. But in order to live to that day, Tilde needed to actually get some sleep, lest she collapse from exhaustion the next day.

"I have to go now, but if you call me tomorrow evening, I might actually pick up," she said.

"I might even call," Maria replied, a smile in her voice Tilde didn't have to see to know was there.

The next day, Tilde looked down at her phone and the number on its screen, and smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
